[terrieb]

I saw the news last night about another increase in home insurance premiums (hurricane insurance I assume) next year to an increase of about 20%. The paper today said there was an increase last year as well of about 28%. Coming from Ohio and having to deal with only tornados and blizzards....I find this increase ridiculous and how can retired people on fixed incomes afford these constant increases..... according to the news last night they can't!

Do these increases in home owners insurance happen often? Is it necessary to have additional hurricane coverage if you live in central Florida like the Villages? Do any of you home owners have hurricane insurance "just in case" the big one like Katrina ever comes through?

What is a ballpark cost of a standard home insurance policy with reasonable deductibles and liability coverage for a $200,000 house without hurricane insurance? What about with hurricane insurance?

So much to investigate before moving to Florida.

[logdog]

You need hurricane coverage in TV. Without it, if you get hit by a tornado spawned by a named storm you're not covered. But because we are so far inland, insurance is very reasonable. Expect to pay about $650 per year for a designer.

We used to live in the Florida Panhandle close to the coast. Our insurance doubled after every hurricane until we were paying about $2,500 per year with a very high hurricane deducible. Our buyer was paying over $3,000 per year. Some of our neighbors who lived closer to the water were paying over $20,000 per year.

Part of the problem in Florida is lack of completion. Most major carriers will not insure anywhere in the state. Again, TV is far enough inland that insurance is not an issue.

[starflyte1]

We just received our homeowners insurance and it did go up AND dropped sink hole coverage. We changed companies and get sink hole included for about the same cost.

[skyguy79]

Terrib,

We just obtained insurance on the designer we're purchasing in about 3 weeks. After the first quotes at $834 & $747 our agent got us a final cost of exactly $700 with ASI. This included hurricane with a $500 deductible and $1000 deductable on the rest of the pearls. However, note that be it either the insurance agency we went through (AAA) or elsewise, not everybody would get the same quote on the same house. There are other factors that go into the determination of ones premium. i.e. your credit report or options chosen. Best to shop around for a few quotes and if you want a quote from AAA, here is the contact information for the broker/agent we used!

AAA Insurance
Bonnie Colangelo
Licensed Insurance Agent
Ph. 352-753-2500 ext.2264
bcolangelo@aaasouth.com